My favorite things from Japan

A lot of cool stuff comes from Japan, so I thought that I would share some of my favorite things, if you have some favorites, please leave comments, I love to read them! Well first of all, I am a gamer at heart, so one of the best things to come from Japan is Nintendo! Like most people, Mario was my first introduction to gaming, made by a person I consider to be a legend and a genius, Shigeru Miyamoto. Speaking of "legends" he also made my favorite game of all time, "The Legend of Zelda" which I spent many hours of my childhood playing, and even to this day I still play all the new ones as soon as they are released. My second favorite game is "Final Fantasy" which as I understand is HUGE in Japan.

My favorite singer from Japan also happens to be extremely popular, Hikaru Utada, and probably second to her is Puffy Amiyumi. But just recently I have found a singer named Tigarah, her songs are kind of a mix between techno and rap, and it really sounds good to me! Her web page can be found at http://www.velocitymw.com/tigarah/music.htm , check her out if you get the time.

As for TV shows, I like to watch "Kaze no Haruka" and "Firefighter Natsuko", but I can only understand a few words from each of them, so it makes it difficult to understand the stories! Wakaranai! わからない！But its ok, because not being able to understand them makes me want to study even more! Gambatte! がんばって！

Well these are just a few of the many great things from Japan, be sure to comment about your favorites! Noah

Big news!!

I have some big news that I can't hold in any longer, I can finally say that I will be going to Japan next month! I am so excited! The only bad news is that I applied for a passport a week ago, and it arrived yesterday.....with my name misspelled! Sai'aku! さいあく！The good news is that they will fix it for free, and it should be done in time for my trip. The dates that I am thinking about are April 23 through the 29, I have been dreaming about going to Japan for so long, I can't believe that I am actually going soon! I am taking half the day off tomorrow to fix my passport, so I will have time to write a Japanese post then, I just wanted to tell everybody my big news tonight, mata ashita! Noah

Finally I have time to post!

Well finally I have time to post, I didn't have enough time in the morning before work to make a post, so I figured I would wait until tonight so that I can make a proper post. The last few days have been pretty boring, I worked everyday this week, but last night was very fun. I got to see two of my best friends whom I haven't seen in about 2 months, it was great! They live in Atlanta now, so I don't get to see them much, so any chance I get to hang out with them is really fun. Tomorrow will be a long day of work, I work in a retail store and tomorrow is inventory day, so that means lots of work and stress, but hopefully everything will go smoothly, and most importantly, I get my day off! :)

おとといはつまらなかつたです。　Ototoi wa tsumaranakatta desu. The day before yesterday was boring. 　
きのうはとてもたのしかつたですよ！　Kinou wa totemo tanoshikatta desu yo! Yesterday was very fun!
あしたはむずかしいしごとです。　Ashita wa muzukashii shigoto desu. Tomorrow work will be hard.

Below is a picture of me and my friend Tawney, it was great to get to hang out with her again, well that's all for now, hope everyone has a great weekend! Noah

Fun at work, well not really...

Well I haven't posted for a few days because of work, and I just found out that my next day off, which would have been Friday, is gone! かなしい！Kanashii! But its not that bad, so I will be fine, だいじょうぶです！Daijobu desu!

I want to say thanks to Hitomi for correcting my Japanese sentences, because she taught me a very important lesson about わ and は. I forgot about the rule that は　is used to mark the topic, and also in こんにちは and certain other words. Well I am glad that Hitomi corrected me, otherwise all of my posts would have been wrong, by me using わ, so thanks Hitomi! ありがとう！

Well I really want to write about the last few days, but I am very sleepy right now, so I will try to post some Japanese sentences in the morning, Oyasuminasai! Noah

What I have learned so far....

Today I will post about where my skills are at, even though at this time, my skills are pretty low, the whole point of this blog is to increase them right? So lets hope for the best! そうだといいね！(So-dato ii-ne!) I haven't mastered Hiragana yet, but with Hitomi's help I am sure I will know them all soon! Right now I know あいうえお、かきくけこ、がぎぐげご、さしすせそ。And also の、but only because you see that one constantly it seems:)

My sentence forming ability is low, but I am going to try to form sentences on here, even if they are completely wrong, I am still going to try. I must get used to being able to make mistakes, otherwise I will always be too scared to use Japanese in fear of being wrong. So if you know Japanese and see a mistake, please tell me, and I hope that you don't cringe too bad when reading my sentences.

Well with that out of the way, on with today's blog!

Today is my day off. Kyou wa yasumi desu. きょうはやすみです。
I am very happy about this! Watashi wa ureshii desu yo! わたしはうれしいですよ！
　 Tomorrow I have to work. Ashita wa shigoto desu. あしたはしごとです。

Well thanks for reading, see you tomorrow! Mata ashita! またあした！

My first post!

My first post! Well, first of all thank you for reading this page, I hope that if you are learning Japanese or any other language that your progress is going well and that you will continue to study your language! I have chosen to learn Japanese because I really love Japanese culture and traditions, from anime to video games, I am truly fascinated by all of Japan's great culture. I would like to take this chance to thank Hitomi and Paul for their great podcast, their podcast has made me re-energized about learning Japanese, so be sure to check out http://www.japancast.net/ , although chances are if your reading this, you are probably already familiar with this site :)

The point of this site is to make me study everyday, if everyday I write something that I have learned, it will make me study more the next day, I think it will be a progress diary for me. I hope that one day I will be fluent enough to make entire post in Japanese, but I'll have to wait a while before that can happen. Noah